Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you, sir. (Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Neely Tamminga - Piper Jaffray.
Neely Tamminga - Piper Jaffray
Just a couple of questions here for you, I think dovetailing right onto what you were leading with, Mike, in your closing remarks. I'm just wondering in terms of '09 and the opportunity, historically you guys have talked about acquisition of licenses or brands or companies overall or distribution. I'm just wondering how you would size up your opportunity in this economic environment?
Michael W. Barnes
I would just say that probably most of the opportunities have not surfaced yet. I think that we're just at the beginning of seeing what's going to happen during this year and what kind of opportunities come out. Because of the strength of our company and our balance sheet and everything else, we're obviously going to stay opportunistic and if we see an opportunity for some type of a great global partnership, whether it's a license or whether there's an acquisition out there that we think we can really leverage going forward, we're going to be looking at that.
That's something that is not anticipated in our numbers and where we're at; as you know, everything is pretty much organic growth for us right now. And we still think there's a huge opportunity in our direct-to-consumer businesses as well as the FOSSIL brand and other businesses. But that would be icing on the cake if some great opportunity comes up. We'll keep our eyes open for that.
Neely Tamminga - Piper Jaffray
And then just with respect to the department stores, I guess I'm trying to crack the code a little bit more in getting inside the minds of Macy's and others in that space. Do you get the sense that the order flow has been taken down in order to actually improve their normalized weeks of supply or do you think that they're simply catching up? What extent of that is actually in the $1.40 - $1.60 guidance?
Michael W. Barnes
I'm not sure I exactly understand your question.
Neely Tamminga - Piper Jaffray
Weeks of supply on hand with respect to their inventory, with all of their brands and vendors, it seems to me that everybody's talking about order flow in general just being tapered quite a bit from the department stores post-Christmas.
Mark D. Quick
I think you've hit it both ways. I do think there was some catching up in late fourth quarter that we saw continue through early January, but I would also say there is some continued pressure to keep inventories low and improve their weeks of supply. That has been factored into our numbers.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
